Adjunct professor, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago

Adjunct professor, Biological Sciences, Northwestern University

Research associate, Department of Botany, The Field Museum

Selected Professional Associations:

Member, Steering Committee, International Union for the Conservation of Nature Species Survival Commission

Chair, “Mushrooms, Brackets, and Puffballs” Specialist Group, International Union for the Conservation of Nature Species Survival Commission

Member, Science Advisory Council for the Illinois Chapter of the Nature Conservancy

Member, Mayor’s (Chicago) Nature and Wildlife Committee

Member, Executive Council, Chicago Wilderness Alliance

Served as president of the Mycological Society of America and as international coordinator for fungal programs at the Costa Rican National Biodiversity Institute

Research Interests:

Systematics, diversity, biogeography, ecology, and population biology of mushrooms and other macrofungi

Conservation of fungi

Mycorrhizas

My research and training programs focus on the systematics, biogeography, ecology, population biology, and conservation of higher fungi, especially mushrooms and other macrofungi. My postdocs, graduate students, collaborators and I have been documenting the worldwide diversity and distribution of fungi and the factors influencing these patterns. Thus, in addition to spearheading survey and inventory projects in China and Latin America and undertaking monographic studies of Laccaria – Hydnangium clade, Cantharellaceae, and other model taxa, I have been investigating how fungi respond to anthropogenic stress and restoration efforts in the Chicago area and conservation practices in Costa Rica and China. Because some fungi, especially those that form ectomycorrhizas, appear to be negatively affected by pollution, they are a good group to use to monitor the impact of environmental change on forests.

I also have been active in developing and publishing protocols for quantitative sampling of fungi to facilitate their inclusion in conservation and biodiversity initiatives. We have recently initiated population- level studies to investigate conservation-related questions in macrofungi, i.e., size and age of individuals, the role of spores versus clones for maintenance of populations, barriers to geneflow, etc. Finally, I am interested in developing biodiversity informatics tools to build ID tools and serve biodiversity data to diverse publics. For example, I was the project director of the vPlant project, and am the coordinator of the Global Fungal Red List Initiative.

John Paul Schmit (1999–2000) Currently Quantitative Ecologist, National Park Service

John (Jack) F. Murphy (1995–1997)

Websites:

Mushrooms of Illinois My colleague Joe McFarland, a writer for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, and I put this website together as a companion to our book Edible Wild Mushrooms of Illinois and Surrounding States. I have been studying the mushrooms of the area since graduate student days. While we know a lot about the birds, mammals, butterflies, plants, and snakes of Illinois and surrounding states, we are finding species of mushrooms unknown to science every year. The greater Chicago area is home to more than 1,000 species of mushrooms, bracket fungi, puffballs, etc.

Mushrooms of Costa Rica Costa Rica is a fascinating place to study biodiversity and ecology because of the incredible biological richness and variety of habitats found within its small size. I have been working to document the diversity of Costa Rican fungi since 1986. My colleague Roy Halling of the New York Botanical Garden and I created a website to highlight the amazing fungi of the country and summarize our work. I was accompanied by a photographer/videographer during an expedition to Costa Rica in 2004 to show the research team in the field, create educational materials, and highlight some of our cool findings with stories, images, and ten video reports.http://expeditions.fieldmuseum.org/tropical-mushrooms

Laccaria, a Model Genus for Studying Mushroom Ecology In addition to studying “all” the mushrooms of selected countries, I research particular groups of mushrooms, such as Laccaria, that have exceptional value for addressing important biological questions. Such questions include how many species of fungi are there, do fungal species have distributions similar to plants and animals, and what degree of specificity occurs between plants and their symbiotic fungi.

NAMA Voucher Collection The North American Mycological Association (NAMA) organizes an annual meeting/foray for amateur and professional mycologists. These forays are held at locations around the United States and Canada, and the specimens collected provide a unique snapshot of the fungal diversity of each site. Compiled, these data constitute the most comprehensive dataset on the fungi of North America. Images and information on the species found during these forays are housed at The Field Museum.

Mycological Contributions of Rolf Singer Rolf Singer (1906–94) was one of the most influential figures in the history of mycology. He described more than 2,000 new species and provided major insights into fungal ecology. His 439 publications, in nine languages, serve as the foundation for much of the current research into fungal diversity. I had the incredible opportunity of working with Dr. Singer from 1985–94, and this had a tremendous impact on my research program. A searchable database providing information on his new species and a complete bibliography is available online.